“Genetic Engineering.” The World Book Encyclopedia. 2008 ed. This encyclopedia was extremely helpful. In not knowing all of the exact terms and basic knowledge of genetic engineering, it helped inform any reader of all this and more. The pages that had information on genetics and genetic engineering, had detailed definitions and descriptions for all the terms and ideas. Instead of focusing more towards the future of genetic engineering, it gave numerous facts about the technology and accomplishments of today. In addition to basic knowledge information, history, diagrams, and background information was provided. Including genetic testing, genes and their formation, and genetic background. The encyclopedia gave easy, organized, and accessible information to use. The information that the encyclopedia gave was amazing. It gave impressive descriptions of the terms, and medical procedures in full detail that anyone could understand without deep pondering about what it meant. The background information was helpful too because I could see where the ideas of genetic engineering came from, why people might want to incorporate it in the future, and pros and cons to the “mission” of genetic engineering. It helped immensely in the research for my paper. Kavanaugh, John F. “The Case against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering. ( Designing Life)( Book Review)”. America. 13 August 2007: 33. From Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. This site was actually a book review. It explained the different viewpoints of genetic engineering in humans. The information was limited because the book was not available to compare with, however, the powerful opposing sides of the article made many great points that maybe not every person would think of. The ideas varied from genetically enhancing children to an extent that parents could decide whether they want their children to be star athlete material, or strong, but gentle people in the future, to creating a child that might as well have “made in the USA” tattooed on his or her arm. This wild idea was inspired because of the chance that parents could pick out eye color, body shape, and color of skin, all before the baby is born. Most of this article focused on the ethics of genetic engineering in humans. This article may not have been the best resource to use because I did not have the book to rely and compare to, but the viewpoints were strong and interesting.
SUMMARY: Director of the Ethics Institute, Ronald M. Green, in his article “Building Baby from the Genes Up” discusses why he thinks that genetically modifying babies genes is more beneficial than destructive. He begins his article off by mentioning a story of a couple who wishe to genetically modify their baby so that they could make sure the baby would not develop the long family line of breast cancer. Green then notifies the reader that no matter where they stand on the matter, genetically modifying babies is going to become more and more popular. Even the National Institute of Health is beginning to invest in technology that can be used to genetically modify human genes. He then explains how genetically modifying human genes can be beneficial,
Sarah Ly is a PhD candidate at the University of Pennsylvania where she studied biomedical sciences and neurobiology and at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory where part of her work involved genes and genomics. Ly received the National Merit Scholarship as well as the Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship. In her article, “Ethics of Designer Babies,” author Sarah Ly explains that the concept of in vitro fertilization has become a reality and with that, genetically engineered embryos are evolving, thus many people believe regulations are needed. The article states that many believe it should just be used when the child is at risk of a genetic disease and should not be used to permit parents to decide the fate of their children by picking traits.
The introduction to the article and the following six paragraphs are not composed of opinions or viewpoints. The general facts and methods of genetic engineering are described, and the companies behind the research are introduced. Loaded words are used in this part of the article but are not very common.
Science and technology are rapidly advancing everyday; in some ways for the better, and in some, for worse. One extremely controversial advance is genetic engineering. As this technology has high potential to do great things, I believe the power genetic engineering is growing out of control. Although society wants to see this concept used to fight disease and illness, enhance people 's lives, and make agriculture more sustainable, there needs to be a point where a line is drawn.
Every parent's dream of having the perfect baby with pretty eyes, hair, skin, and gifted abilities. Some parents have even taken drastic measures to ensure their babies are born with these gorgeous features and talents. Some parents are willing to genetically manipulate their embryos to create their perfect baby. Bio technology has allowed parents to piece together their ideal human being from their eye color to their mental and physical abilities. Genetic Manipulation in some eyes can be seen as wrong and right in the other if used for the right reasons. I believe that scientists should use this new technology for preventing birth defects and help cure serve illness among babies. I believe genetic manipulation of human offspring is wrong because it’s unethical and causes social issues.
Picture a young couple in a waiting room looking through a catalogue together. This catalogue is a little different from what you might expect. In this catalogue, specific traits for babies are being sold to couples to help them create the "perfect baby." This may seem like a bizarre scenario, but it may not be too far off in the future. Designing babies using genetic enhancement is an issue that is gaining more and more attention in the news. This controversial issue, once thought to be only possible in the realm of science-fiction, is causing people to discuss the moral issues surrounding genetic enhancement and germ line engineering. Though genetic research can prove beneficial to learning how to prevent hereditary diseases, the genetic enhancement of human embryos is unethical when used to create "designer babies" with enhanced appearance, athletic ability, and intelligence.
These articles compare and contrast the pros and cons of genetic engineering. Both articles are representations of the scientific and ethical reasons. First article implements the scientific reasons. Being able to save a person from a genetic disorder can save them from a life
There is always debate over human genetic engineering. Disputes over human genetic engineering concern the means for achieving assumed ends, rather than being a healthy discussion about the ends themselves. This book not only explores how decisions about the ethics of human genetic engineering are made, but also shows how the structure of the debate has led to the technological choices we now face.
Genetic engineering has been around for many years and is widely used all over the planet. Many people don’t realize that genetic engineering is part of their daily lives and diet. Today, almost 70 percent of processed foods from a grocery store were genetically engineered. Genetic engineering can be in plants, foods, animals, and even humans. Although debates about genetic engineering still exist, many people have accepted due to the health benefits of gene therapy. The lack of knowledge has always tricked people because they only focused on the negative perspective of genetic engineering and not the positive perspective. In this paper, I will be talking about how Genetic engineering is connected to Brave New World, how the history of genetic engineering impacts the world, how genetic engineering works, how people opinions are influenced, how the side effects can be devastating, how the genetic engineering can be beneficial for the society and also how the ethical issues affect people’s perspective.
People should not have access to genetically altering their children because of people’s views on God and their faith, the ethics involving humans, and the possible dangers in tampering with human genes. Although it is many parent’s dream to have the perfect child, or to create a child just the way they want, parents need to realize the reality in genetic engineering. Sometimes a dream should stay a figment of one’s imagination, so reality can go in without the chance of harming an innocent child’s life.
Widely considered a revolutionary scientific breakthrough, genetic engineering has been on a path toward changing the world since its introduction in 1973 by Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer (What). However, as genetic engineering slowly permeates the lives of humanity, the morals and ethics behind what are now common practices are entering public attention, and as a culture we are left to question whether the change brought on by such a discovery bring benefits and positive change, or damage and destruction. Genetic engineering is justified through applied bioethics and despite arguments against its societal implantation, should be fully utilized in efforts to develop into the 21st century.
Genetic engineering can improve the overall health of the human population by eliminating diseases such as HIV, hypercholesterolemia, sickle-cell anemia, hemophilia, and even forms of genetic blindness. Genetic engineering can also be used to affect many other non-health related traits such as prevent baldness, improve one’s height, or change the size of one’s nose. This is accomplished by changing the genetic code in babies before they are born. Most people are in favor of using this technology to prevent illnesses in babies, but question the advantages of using it to alter the physical appearance of children. To some people, the concept of “designing babies” is a wonderful way to ensure their children are products of their exact liking; others find it to be invasive of human nature. Some scientists think the applications of genetically modifying babies could be slightly dangerous, but feel that “environmental uses are more worrisome than a few modified people” (Regalado2). The real issue at stake however is when the dynamics of families across the world are so drastically perversed, society as a whole will suffer (Regalado2?). With the lack of regulations on genetic engineering, people are basically free to entirely create their children however they like. Most people find similar qualities of children to be desirable, so genetically modified people will lack less desirable and unique qualities, which will inevitably lead to a less diverse human race. By deciding for ourselves how we want our children to look, we are essentially playing the role of God and are stripping nature of its right to create pure, naturally evolved life. Not only does designing children interfere with nature, but it also undermines the relationship between parents and their children “by increasing the power of parents to control the biological properties of their offspring” (Foht).
Genetic Engineering is the deliberate alteration of an organism's genetic information (Lee 1). The outcome scientists refer to as successful entitles the living thing’s ability to produce new substances or perform new functions (Lee 1). In the early 1970’s, direct manipulation of the genetic material deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) became possible and led to the rapid advancement of modern biotechnology (Lee 1).
Genetic engineering has been around since the 1960’s although major experiments have not been really noticed until the 1990’s. The science comes in different forms the two major being cloning and genetic reconstruction. Cloning is the duplicating of one organism and making an exact copy. For example in 1996 the creation of the clone sheep named Dolly the first mammal to be cloned which was a great achievement. The other form, genetic reconstruction, is used to replace genes within humans to help or enhance the life of an unborn child for a medical reason or just for the preference of a parent.
Although genetic engineering seems to be more harmful than helpful, when used correctly, it will help the society prosper. Considering the technology our society has currently developed, genetic engineering is a difficult topic to discuss and confirm. If the researchers confirm this process, it may become easier for the scientists and will help cure the diseases easily. The debate, however, will still be on the rise because of the issue in human morals and ethics.